Stefan Knapp is German-Greek. He was born in Thessaloniki and lived for a few years in Germany, but also in other European countries. His father is German, his mother Greek. Stefan studies photography at the Leica Academy in Athens.

Christoph Doulgeris is a photographer and was born in the north of Greece. Christoph’s parents live in Germany. He lived in Germany as a child for five years and went to the Greek secondary school in Düsseldorf. Later he went back to Greece to study. Today he lives in Athens.

Ever since Otto, the Bavarian prince and the first King of Greece (1832 – 1862), the Germans and the Greeks have had a very special relationship. It survived two world wars and was able to recover in the postwar period. On both sides great efforts were made to strengthen the relationship and yet it was always characterized by a latent ambivalence.

However, with the onset of the financial crisis in Greece, the Greek-German relationship deteriorated progressively. In the German media you could read about lazy Greeks old prejudices were dug up without reflection. The Greeks accused the German government of waiting too long with financial aid and exerting too much pressure on the Greek people. The discussion came to a head in February 2010 when a German magazine published an issue entitled “Fraudster in the Euro Family”. As a result, Angela Merkel was repeatedly denounced in the Greek press. Anti-German voices grew louder and ranged from the ultra-left camp to the right-wing populist party Anexartiti Ellines (Independent Greeks), which called for anti-German resentment in its election manifesto and demanded German reparations. The party won 7.51% of the votes in the last parliamentarian election in June 2012.

I felt persuaded from various sides that as a German, my trip to Athens would be ill-fated. That’s why I decided to get to the bottom of the German-Greek relations. I visited German institutes and associations in Athens and conducted interviews with people who have a close connection to Germany and Greece for various reasons. Through this I got a very personal impression of the German-Greek relations, one very different from the media image.

In my photographic series, I combine a selection of portraits and quotes from interviews with my personal observations on the German-Greek relations.

During my stay in Athens the Greeks always treated me with respect. I never felt unwelcome. The Greeks with whom I spoke didn´t deny the blame, but were realistic and reflective with regard to the situation of their country. In the German-Greek institutions I saw how alive the German-Greek relations are. There are many people who make a small contribution to the improvement of the international understanding between the two countries every day.